1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular sun visor for shading the radiated light such as sunlight and headlamp light of cars in opposite lanes coming from the front or the side of the driver's seat or the front passenger's seat of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional vehicular sun visor of this type is configured so that a holder is provided in a sun visor body formed, for example, into a hollow shape, and an insertion-side part on one end side of a shaft bent substantially into an L shape is turnably inserted in the holder and an attachment-side part on the other side of the shaft is attached to the vehicle body side via a bracket, so that the shaft is turnably supported on the bracket, and the sun visor body is turnably supported on the shaft.
In the case where the radiated light such as sunlight and headlamp light of cars in opposite lanes comes from the front of the driver's seat or the front passenger's seat, the sun visor body is turned downward via the shaft so as to face to the driver's seat or the front passenger's seat to shade the radiated light such as sunlight and headlamp light of cars in opposite lanes.
Also, in the case where the radiated light such as sunlight and headlamp light of cars in opposite lanes comes from the side of the driver's seat or the front passenger's seat, the sun visor body is turned downward via the shaft and also turned to the side of vehicle with respect to the bracket, by which the sun visor body is positioned at the vehicle side to shade the radiated light radiated from the side of vehicle (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-254649).
For the above-described vehicular sun visor, the range in which light is shaded by the sun visor body is generally fixed. However, in recent years, considering the drive of vehicle for a long period of time from sunrise to sunset, a slide-type sun visor has been known which is configured considering that the radiated light of sunlight coming from the side of vehicle moves in the front and rear direction of vehicle.
Specifically, a slide-type sun visor has been known which is configured so that the sun visor body is slidable with respect to the shaft so that the light shading portion at the side of vehicle can be changed (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-9883).
For the slide-type sun visor of this type, as shown in FIG. 10 (a front view of a conventional slide-type sun visor) and FIG. 11 (a sectional view taken along the line B-B of FIG. 10), like the ordinary sun visor in which the light shading range is fixed, a sun visor body a is turnably supported on a shaft b, the shaft b is insertedly supported on a bracket c, and the bracket c is attached to a ceiling part (not show) of a vehicle body panel.
The shaft b is turnably supported on a support assembly d mounted in the sun visor body a. For example, in order to turn the sun visor body a from a state of being stored on the ceiling surface to a service position on the windshield side in front of the driver's seat or the front passenger's seat, the sun visor body a is turned downward around the shaft b.
Also, in order to change the light shading range to the side of vehicle, that is, from the windshield side to the side window side, the sun visor body a is turned around the shaft b and also the shaft b itself is turned around the bracket c, by which the sun visor body a is turned in the right and left direction of vehicle.
Furthermore, the slide-type sun visor shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 has the support assembly d so that the light shading range can be changed freely by sliding the sun visor body a along the axial direction of the shaft b.
That is to say, the support assembly d consists of a support body e formed of a resin molded body and a plate spring f mounted on the support body e. In a shaft hole m in the support body e, the shaft b is inserted, by which the shaft b is turnably supported.
Further, a part of the outer peripheral surface of the shaft b is brought into elastic contact with the plate spring f, by which turning torque at the time when the sun visor body a is turned around the shaft b can be obtained.
More detailedly, the sun visor body a has shell-shaped divided sun visor bodies a-1 and a-2. The divided sun visor bodies a-1 and a-2 are joined to each other in such a manner that the curved outer surface thereof is directed to the outside, by which a hollow resin core material a-3 is formed.
Also, the outer surface of the resin core material a-3 is configured by being covered with a sun visor skin a-4 formed of a woven fabric, nonwoven fabric, synthetic resin sheet, or the like.
The divided sun visor bodies a-1 and a-2 constituting the resin core material a-3 are assembled by engaging a locking claw g provided on one divided sun visor body a-1 with a locking part h provided on the other divided sun visor body a-2.
Also, on the inner surface of each of the divided sun visor bodies a-1 and a-2, guide ribs i and j that contactingly support both side surfaces of the support body e in the support assembly (holder) d are provided. The guide ribs i and j slidably support the support assembly d.
Specifically, the guide ribs i and j are formed at two upper and lower locations of each of the divided sun visor bodies a-1 and a-2 so as to face to each other. The distance between the guide ribs i and the distance between the guide ribs j each are set so as to be smaller than the thickness of the support body e.
By setting the distances in this manner, when the support body e is held by the guide ribs i and j, an elastic contacting force from the guide ribs i and j is applied to the support body e. Therefore, the support assembly (holder) d can be supported surely while it can be slid in the axial direction of the shaft b.
As the recent tendency of vehicle, to enhance the safety and protection of passengers, the vehicle is equipped with various types of airbag systems. Among these airbag systems, a curtain airbag system is sometimes mounted which is disposed along a side roof garnish from a front pillar of vehicle.
On a vehicle equipped with such curtain airbag system, when the sun visor body a shades light on the side window side, a high load is applied to the sun visor body a by the operation of the curtain airbag system.
In the case where a high load is applied to the sun visor body a in this manner, depending on the turning torque generated by the elastic contact with the shaft b due to the plate spring f, the support body e cannot be supported on the shaft b, so that the sun visor body a together with the support body e may come off the shaft b.
In the above situation, there has been known a supporting structure on the shaft that strengthens a force for preventing the support body e from coming off the shaft b (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-312258).
Such a supporting structure on the shaft is shown in FIG. 12 (an exploded perspective view showing the shaft and the support assembly (holder) of the vehicular sun visor in another conventional example) and FIG. 13 (a front view showing a state in which the shaft is assembled to the support assembly (holder) in another conventional example).
As shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, a coming-off preventing rib k (coming-off preventing contacting piece) having a large rib height is formed in a part of the insertion end part of the shaft b, the insertion end part being inserted in the support body e.
Furthermore, a concave groove n is provided in the inner peripheral surface of the shaft hole m. When the shaft b is inserted into the shaft hole m in the support body e, the coming-off preventing rib k is caused to pass through the concave groove n provided in the inner peripheral surface of the shaft hole m. Further, the sun visor body a is turned around the shaft b, by which the coming-off preventing rib k is engaged with an end face o of the support body e. Thereby, the support body e, and in turn, the sun visor body a can be prevented from coming off the shaft b.
For the conventional vehicular sun visor shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, the coming-off preventing rib k formed in a part of the insertion end part of the shaft b is engaged with the end face o of the support body e, by which the support body e, and in turn, the sun visor body a is prevented from coming off the shaft b. On the other hand, the curtain airbag system is configured so that the curtain airbag is expandingly deployed over a wide range at the side of vehicle from the front pillar to a rear pillar of vehicle, by which not only the driver or the passenger seated on the front side of vehicle but also the passengers seated on the rear seat are restrainedly protected.
Therefore, the curtain airbag system is configured so that the curtain airbag is expandingly deployed by a high expandingly deploying force. Resultantly, such a high expandingly deploying force is applied to the sun visor body a.
Since the coming-off preventing rib k having a large rib height formed in a part of the insertion end part of the shaft b is merely engaged with the end face o of the support body e in a point contact manner or with a small area, a very high concentrated load per unit area is applied.
Therefore, for the conventional vehicular sun visor, although the coming-off preventing rib k has a construction such as to be broken very easily, if being broken off the shaft b, the rib k cannot perform a function of preventing the sun visor body a from coming off.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular sun visor configured so that even if a curtain airbag is expandingly deployed and thereby a high expandingly deploying force is applied to a sun visor body, the sun visor body does not come off a shaft easily because a coming-off preventing piece formed on the shaft is difficult to break.